


at the seams

by neepynoodles



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death (mentioned), Character Death, Fist Fights, Mechanical Dismemberment, Minor Violence, Revenge, Violence, as well as
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23126155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neepynoodles/pseuds/neepynoodles
Summary: Her parents had died alone, murdered while protecting her. Today she will avenge them.or, the one where Loba has her chance for revenge and she takes it with both hands.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	at the seams

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a piece by Mona (@zimtdraws on twitter) of Loba confronting Revenant and boy oh boy did that give me a fresh boost of writing juice. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope it's fun to read too!

Loba rides the lift up in silence, surprised it still works despite the combination of time and abandonment. The place had been evacuated and never returned to until now. She reaches the top and takes a deep breath to steel herself, waiting for the doors to open as she ignores the giant hole of shattered glass that she could easily walk through. The jackal idol in her pocket feels heavier as she takes a step forward, now standing where her own father had last stood moments before his dead body had fallen before her. 

And now she was meeting with his killer. 

Revenant lounges in one of the chairs closer to the broken window overlooking the rest of the city. The table he’s seated at is overturned and several legs are broken but he doesn’t seem to care. He fixes his glowing stare on her as soon as she takes a step forward and she struggles to hold back her immediate anger. 

She knows that spot. She knows that table. 

He leans back and folds a leg over the other, tilting his head to the side as he waits for her to approach. His posture is casual, relaxed, _bored_. She can’t tell whether or not he knows exactly which table he’s chosen and who she is. 

She decides she doesn’t care. She had a plan, and she was going to carry it out. 

“I assume _you’re_ the one who called me here?” He asks as she approaches the table. He barely moves as he speaks, giving off an air of laziness in the way he rolls his neck. “Got a job for me, then?”

She calms herself by reciting in her head the different parts and wiring that make up his body, as if looking at a blueprint in her mind. His arrogance is obvious, even if he barely masks it with a thin layer of boredom and indifference. She knows better. She’s seen firsthand what he’s capable of. 

Loba smiles as she stops in front of him, standing so close that if she bent her knees they would brush against the cold metal of his legs. He doesn’t stop her, he only stares up at her with those glowing, calculating optics unblinking. 

"Of course. I have everything right here." She reaches into her pocket and her hand closes around the idol. Her father's last gift to her. 

It extends as she pulls it out of her pocket, sparking with electricity as she strikes the end of it into Revenant's chest and his whole body convulses. He manages to scramble backwards away from her, wires sparking and limbs twitching as he growls. She advances, determined and unfaltering, and lifts the rod to strike him again. His vision is hazy around the edges as he doubles over, struggling to rise to his feet again. But he manages to swipe his arm forward, fingers extending as he blindly aims for her throat.

Loba ducks, swinging the rod into the junction where the front plate of his shin meets the rest of his leg. It isn't enough to remove the metal but she notes with satisfaction that it is enough to nudge the plating to the side. She steps back quickly, lifting the weapon again for another strike before he can react. He raises an arm in time as the charged rod comes down. The shock this time is more bearable, but he can feel the metal plate start to cave in from the force of her attack. 

"So," He begins, amusement evident in his voice, "this was your idea of a trap? Who _are_ you?" 

"You killed my father." She practically snarls, gritting her teeth as she lifts her boot only to slam it into the front of his body where the metal plating is toughest. 

The strength of it sends him flying back, colliding with the wall before falling to his knees from the impact. His optics glow and dim, fading from yellow to a fiercer orange then red. Surveying her. Judging her. 

"I've killed many fathers, child." He replies calmly, voice level as he stands up and strides forward towards her, shaking the bits of wall loose from his joints. "You'll have to be more specific."

He pauses, tilts his head to the side. "Unless you would like to join him?" he asks, tone teasing even as she charges forward again and he just _barely_ manages to block her attack with his own arms. 

"I have been _waiting_ for this." She hisses, face close to his. Anger burning in her eyes even as tears threaten to spill, "I'm here to _kill_ you." 

He makes a noise like a huff, raspy and filled with static, "You don't know how many times I've heard that exact line, _child_ -" 

"My name is _Loba_."

"I've existed for 300 years, _Loba_." He hisses back, pushing her up and off of himself before slamming his foot into her knee. He towers over her as she lands with a grunt on the cold, hard ground of the restaurant. "In all those years, do you think _no one_ has tried to kill me? Many have tried. A few have succeeded."

Loba lunges forward and her fingers dig into his leg, wrapping around the plating until her fingertips reach the wiring underneath. It takes him 5 seconds too long to realise her intentions, and another 2 seconds too long to kick her off. The wires are saved but the plating is wrenched to the side awkwardly, not quite in place anymore. That doesn't deter her. She pushes herself up, hands going for the cables that comprise his neck as her foot goes for the plating of his shin again, hitting it from above to remove it from his body entirely. The force of it coming off knocks him down to a knee and he barely has time to acknowledge the pain before she sends her armour plated knee into his face. 

He feels all too human as the taste of copper floods his mouth like blood and his instincts tell him to spit it out to the side. The frame of his body twitches as his circuits desperately try to sort memories from reality. His gaze falls to his arms and then his hands as they flicker between crimson metal and weak flesh. He wants to swallow, to taste. His mind tells him it’s blood then copper then blood again as the programming falters. 

"I'm going to finish the job. _Permanently._ " She's breathing more heavily now, whether it's from effort or from anger he can't tell. Perhaps both. 

"You really think you can kill me and keep me dead?" If he could smile up at her, he would. "I truly hope you succeed." He continues, voice so quiet that the sound seems to resonate through the metal of his simulacrum body. 

Loba feels her heart pounding in her chest and a chill runs down her spine at his words. His voice reverberates around the room; the same as the one that haunts her nightmares. She drops down until her hands can reach his exposed leg again and she drives the end of the charged rod into the wiring, using her other hand to pull them out and snap them one by one. The effect is immediate - Revenant’s leg seems to fall limp as he roars in pain, clawing back with his hands, unable to kick her away anymore. 

He uses his arms and his other leg to launch himself up, his other foot colliding with the side of her face and sending her knocked back a few metres away, weapon still clutched tightly in her hand. His standing is unstable, having to lean entirely on his still functioning leg while the other one drags behind. He knows he needs to fight back, and a large part of his mind screams at him to survive. But-

His thought is cut off by Loba as she uses a nearby chair to haul herself up, undeterred by the large bruise now forming on her cheek. 

“I did my research.” She declares as she marches forward, grip so tight on the jackal rod that her knuckles go white. 

The second she steps close enough, she goes for another strike to his chest but he catches her hand, metal claws lightly digging into her skin. With one swift motion, he twists her arm and sends her falling to her knees as she grits her teeth in pain. His other hand grips her chin, voice dropping lower as he laughs. 

“Research? Pray tell, skinsuit.” 

Loba’s grimace morphs into a grin as she turns her wrist, the end of the jackal rod forming a point as she drives it into his arm. At the same time, her unrestrained arm goes for the thigh of his unstable leg. Her fingers reach around for where she remembers is an access point, and she roughly pulls the panel open as soon as she finds it. His grip on her chin tightens as he forces her head back, twisting her other arm even further. 

“Your arrogance reveals your seams.” She hisses angrily. 

She manages to extend a leg and swings it into his. It knocks him down just enough that she’s able to reach for his thigh again, fingers tracing over the wires until she feels the ones she wants and she pulls them, _hard_. 

Revenant topples over backwards as his leg sparks and goes entirely limp. She rolls her neck as she stands, sending her heel into his chest again to keep him down. He lets out a choked sounding noise and the inner workings of his simulacrum body work to shut down his pain processors. Leaving only his human mind to experience the sensation of having the wind knocked out of his chest. 

“I know where they bolted you together.” She continues, “I know where every wire crosses, every circuit that keeps you running.” 

One of his arms reaches for her, fingers coming together and extending into spikes aimed for her torso. She sidesteps and grabs his cold wrist, her hand drives the pointed end of the jackal rod into the metal junction of his elbow, sending a current down his arm towards his shoulder. He struggles, but the attempt is half-hearted. Loba doesn’t notice, focused on bending his arm back until his pointed fingers are driven into the ground of the restaurant above his shoulder instead as she wrenches off the shoulder guard to directly get at the joint of his shoulder. 

She slides her boot up along his chest until the toe of it digs into the cables that form his neck, his scarf having slid aside to expose his head in its entirety during the struggle. She grits her teeth as she pries at his shoulder, slowly dismantling it piece by piece until she’s detached his entire arm. She throws it far to the side, eyes burning with anger as she stomps down on his chest and neck one more time for good measure. 

“You took _everything_ from me.” She gets to work on his other arm even as his remaining working leg tries to kick at her. 

“This won’t bring them back.” He croaks, sounding like a scratched record as she ignores him trying to yank her wrist away from his shoulder. Despite his current state, his voice is smug. It’s a practiced tone, sounding more fake the longer he continues. 

“No,” She responds, “It won’t.”

She throws his other arm to the other side of the room, breathing heavily as she straightens up again. The rush of adrenaline is dying down but the longer she watches Revenant struggle beneath her, the hotter the flame of her anger burns. 

She has half a mind to leave him there, half broken and limp on the ground. But she remembers her mother, shot in the head as her father carried her away. And her father himself, sending her down in the elevator, _alone_ to be killed by a monster. They had both died _alone_. 

“I can’t bring them back,” She says bitterly, “but I know they’re watching, and I _will_ avenge them.” 

Her hands go for his chest plating, using the pointed rod to pry at the edges between plates to pry them open and pull him apart at the seams. She’s almost there when he speaks up again. 

“You should know” His voice crackles with static as she continues to dig into his chest, “Vengeance won’t bring the catharsis you believe it will. I’ve walked that path before.” 

She grits her teeth as she pulls wires apart, sending the point of the rod down into the larger mechanics that she couldn’t wrench apart. The more she pulls out, she notices, the less his head remains connected to his neck and torso.

“I’ve come back _every time_.” Revenant continues, voice fading and glitching with increasing frequency and intensity the more wires she unravels. 

“You came back because there were monsters to put you back together.” She spits, “But you got rid of them all.” 

She meets his gaze as her hand closes around his pulsing core, grip tightening as she inhales. 

“Now it’s your turn to die alone, _Revenant._ ” 

She pulls, fingers digging into the metal as she hears the remaining wires snap from the sudden movement. He mutters something as he dies but she’s too absorbed by adrenaline to comprehend the words. The light of his optics flickers from red to yellow and back to red. They settle on orange, dimming and glowing rapidly before they fade to black and his body settles against the cold ground with a thunk; now nothing more than a pile of scrap metal as the remaining cables attaching his head to his chest loosen and detach. 

She’s done it. She’s avenged her parents. She collapses to her knees, breathing heavily and fighting back tears. The weight on her shoulders lifts and she lets out a laugh of victory. 

No longer will her nightmares be haunted by that glowing cold glare or the sight of her mother and father’s collapsed bodies. 

“Mama, Papa, I did it.” She whispers to herself in the now deathly quiet restaurant. 

So why, then, does the dismantled head of the simulacrum still stare up at her with a smug look on its dead features? 

His final words echo in her mind now that the adrenaline has left and they follow her from the restaurant, engraving themselves in her memory. 

_“Thank you.”_


End file.
